Reptile & Amphibian Forums

one of my friends asked me if a snake pees at a seperate time than when he poops. i really didn't know. i think from observation, they do it all t once, but maybe one of the king snake forum masters could tell me the right answer.

thanks for reading my message
candice

It depends on what you mean by "peeing".

When you urinate, you are accomplishing several tasks at once. You are eliminating excess water from your body along with certain waste products. One of the primary waste products passed in the urine are nitrogenous wastes (=nitrogen containing wastes). Those waste products build up in the body and are excreted by mammals as urea in the urine.

Reptiles and birds (which hatch from terrestrial eggs) produce a different form of nitrogenous waste product called uric acid. Uric acid is a white insoluble material. The white pasty material that snakes excrete, often with feces, is this uric acid. It dries out to a hard white material. So the excretion of this white material is equivalent to your production of urine.

So yes, snakes "pee". But when they do, they excrete a pasty uric acid, not a watery solution of urea like you do.

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Chris Harrison

...he was beginning to realize he was the creature of a god that appreciated the discomfort of his worshippers - W. Somerset Maugham

I'd say the answer to the question, bearing in mind Chris' info, is sometimes.
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Peter: It's OK, I'll handle it. I read a book about something like this.
Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't NOTHING?

thanks chriss
i had no idea someone would even answer this question, let alone answer it so well!
science is on your side chriss
take care
and thanks again!